Japan formally complained on Monday after South Korea’s foreign minister raised the issue of wartime “comfort women” at the top U.N. rights body, while warning that it should not be allowed to harm bilateral relations at a critical time in east Asia. “Comfort women” was Japan’s euphemism for Asian women – many of them Korean – forced to work in its wartime brothels. Under a 2015 deal, Japan apologised to the women and provided a 1 billion yen (now $9.4 million) fund to help them, but South Korea has recently sought to revisit the issue. The two U.S. allies, who share a bitter history including Japanese colonisation, are key to international efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes. Kang Kyung-wha, foreign minister of South Korea, did not name Japan directly in her speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council, but called for a “victim-centered approach” to the issue of comfort women. Kang said that the victims, now women in their 80s and 90s, were “still striving to restore their dignity and honour”. “My government has humbly acknowledged that previous efforts to resolve the issue had clearly lacked a victim-centered approach…my government will take steps to help heal their scars and restore their dignity and honour,” Kang said. Junichi Ihara, Japan’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, asked about the call for a victim-centred approach, told reporters: “That is her assessment of their approach.” “Japan is of the view that Minister Kang Kyung-wha’s bringing up the issue… [Read full story]

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Japan got input from South Korea on the sensitive wording of a landmark apology in 1993 to women, many Korean, who worked in Japan's wartime military brothels, an expert panel said after reviewing evidence that led to the statement. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihida Suga, commenting on the report, repeated that Japan would not revise the statement on the "comfort women", as they are euphemistically known in Japan. "It is still very painful to think of the sufferings that the women endured and there is no change in the government's stance on that," Suga told a news conference. The topic of…... [read more]

The United States, Japan and South Korea will hold two days of missile tracking drills starting on Monday, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force said, as tensions rise in the region over North Korea’s fast-developing weapons programmes.North Korea has fired two missiles over Japan as it pursues nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of U.N. sanctions and international condemnation. On Nov. 29, it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile which it said was its most advanced yet, capable of reaching the mainland United States.The exercises will be the sixth drill sharing information in tracking ballistic missiles among the three nations, the defence…... [read more]

Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a joint news conference in Davao city, southern Philippines August 11, 2016 - REUTERSRelations between the three big Asian economies are often difficult with the legacy of Japan's wartime aggression affecting ties between it and China and South Korea, territorial disputes hurting links between Japan and China, and Japan and South Korea, and China suspicious of the others' U.S. ties. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will hold a dinner for his Chinese and South Korean counterparts, Wang Yi and Yun Byung-se, on Tuesday, with an official trilateral meeting set for Wednesday, the…... [read more]

BTO - Despite the unstable worldwide economic situation, trade relations between Vietnam and Japan, South Korea have unfailingly maintained its relatively high growth rate. As forecasted for the next few years, the two Northeast Asian countries above will be the potential markets for exporting commodity of Vietnam in general and Binh Thuan in particular. Therefore, the late October workshop on "boosting commodity export to Japan, South Korea markets" held at Phan Thiet city has recorded these issues. Potential markets The general population of Japan and South Korea is nearly 180 million and the average per-capita income reaches successively USD 34,012…... [read more]

(VOVworld) - North Korea has rejected South Korea's recent offer of talks on Monday, claiming Seoul should first give up its confrontational policy toward Pyongyang. South Korea's parliamentary speaker, Chung Ui-hwa, proposed inter-Korean talks on Friday to mark the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule. On the same day, the South Korean Defense Ministry invited North Korea to the Seoul Defense Dialogue slated for September. The North referred to the dialogue offer as the South's wicked attempts to politicize inter-Korean talks, according to the Korean Central News Agency.... [read more]